Whale Trail: THE iOS game of 2011

How many application launches this year have made you genuinely excited? How many have you followed from conception to pre-deployment with such a fanatical energy that if it were an iPhone launch, you’d be queuing up outside your nearest Apple store right now?

My guess is not many.

Well for me, there has been, and tomorrow (October 20th 2011) marks it’s mass market launch. Whale Trail by ustwo has been in development for some time now (6 months), and thanks to their CHIEF WONKA Mills, its journey from conception to launch has been very public. Now Mills is not known as a marketer, but this launch is supported by an intelligent marketing and promotional strategy. We have had a chance to glimpse at everything from character design to first play videos; understanding every twist and turn along it’s development path as if we are part of the team.

What this has done is establish an emotional attachment between a select number of people and the game. You feel as though you have watched a child grow, and are now excited to see the next stage of its progression. It’s first day at school if you will.

By using Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook to name but a few, ustwo has harnessed the power of social platforms to do what many believed only video could do: emotive communication. Ultimately, even though Mills has been reaching out to just under 5000 followers, and the 100+ people fortunate enough to play test the game before release, he now has an army of fanatics who will gladly spread the word and advocate Whale Trail to the respective social circles. And you know what, even if the game was shit, people probably still would tell their friends to download it.

The problem is…Whale Trail is actually brilliant. Using the well adopted endless runner format, and taking it to an even more premium level, alongside with a fantastic soundtrack (by SFA legend Gruff Rhys), and gameplay that’s guaranteed to drag you back in with, dare I say it, an Angry Birds-esque addiction.

Whale Trail is an utter delight for the senses, and have complete confidence that this could be the next major phase in an incredible journey for the app development and user interface studio.

So as if you were ever in doubt, if there is one thing you need to do once it is live, is head to the app store, search ‘Whale Trail’, part with your disposable income, and spend the next few months indulging in a love in with Willow the Whale.

I promise you…you will not regret it.

Besides, an angry bird ain’t got shit on a flying whale…

Links

Whale Trail demo video
Whale Trail by Gruff Rhys music video
CHIEF WONKA mills Twitter

Mozilla Seabird shows the ultimate phone future…

Petition to remove ‘Cool’ from the marketer’s dictionary

“Lets make something cool”

Who has heard this in a conversation, or brief, or spec before?

“We are targeting the youth market, so whatever we make needs to be cool”

The term itself is contradictory. More often than not, it is used by an ageing old school marketer, who thinks cool defines what ‘young people’ like.

I know so many different types of ‘cool’, which is why the term creates confusion.

Jude law is fucking cool. A good looking bloke, with good fashion sense, clearly got the chat, and he is minted. He is traditionally cool.

One of my very best friends is a whole different level of cool. His past jobs include “Medieval Jouster” and “Blackjack Croupier”. He knows the Countries song off by heart. He loves the Blues Brothers and does some of the strangest stand up comedy I have ever seen. He is in his own right ‘cool’, but is a mile away from being like Jude Law.

What I suppose I am trying to say, is trying to find the cool solution just won’t fly. Doing a Facebook fan page, creating an iPhone app or launching a Twitter feed doesn’t cut the cool mustard.

The fragmentation in the youth market is quite significant, but by changing the way we think about cool, we more often than not can identify an obvious solution amongst the foray of cool ideas.

Throw ‘cool’ in the bin.

Its just called resonance.

Flipboard:
A reason to buy an iPad?!

Oh god. I literally never thought this day would come (at least until iPad Mark II). Having watched the beautifully produced Flipboard video, I have found myself wanting an iPad! Flipboard is a social application which aggregates all of your social networking data into a digital magazine format. The execution looks sublime, with Facebook, Twitter, flickr and other feeds that are relevant to you, smoothly integrated into what looks like a wonderful user experience. One of my truly favourite examples to date of the convergence of mobile and social. Take a look for yourself.